Abstract:
The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics offers symposia on cannabinoids (a chemical compound in cannabis or marijuana), endocannabinoids (a marijuana-like substance) and pain associated with inflammation, stress, psychiatric disorders, neurodegenerative disorders, and other disorders; the future of pharmacogenomics and its clinical applications; nanotechnology in disease therapeutics; osteoporosis and bone research (a symposium subtitled "no time to be bad to the bone"); toxicology of nanomaterials (including effects on the skin and lungs); the ways in which nicotine modulates adolescent brain plasticity, interacts with other drugs during sensitive developmental periods, and, when used along with alcohol by a woman during pregnancy, alters drug responsiveness in offspring; an examination of why children, adolescents and adults respond differently to antidepressants; studies of how perinatal stress, such as maternal separation, affects drug response and propensity to abuse drugs as an adult; and cardiovascular gene therapy.